Does anyone meditate? What do you do, set up, listen to, whatever? Do people find the idea of meditating intimidating?

Yes, I am a long time meditator (is that even a word?! ).I began doing short sessions of breathing exercises years ago, then tried to just not think about anything while sitting still. I moved on to guided imagery CDs, Yoga Nidra, Kundalini Yoga, chanting, subliminal CDs & DVDs, brain wave CDs, and eventually Japa Mala. Now I do a mix of Yoga Nidra, Yoga, and now that I am a 2nd degree Reiki practitioner, I do a self-healing Reiki session almost every night. I would recommend checking into Ana Brett & Ravi Singh's brand new DVD called Meditation. You can get it at www.raviana.com or at www.amazon.com - be sure to check out reviews for details, it truly is delightful with short segments you can string into longer sessions if you like! I pre-ordered it and have been using it almost every day since I received it. They also have many fabulous Kundalini Yoga DVDs each with various meditations and/or chants. For Yoga Nidra I highly recommend (also on www.amazon.com) Swami Janakananda's Experience Yoga Nidra CD. It is the best I have ever found. For the most beautiful mala beads with suggestions of chants/meditations/affirmations I recommend www.yogabasics.com/japamalabeads/I have also found knitting and crocheting to be very similar to a good meditation session, you can get lost in the repetitions of stitches if doing an easy project. When I first started it was very hard for me to sit still and not have my mind wander. Once I got into the practice of meditating regularly, I feel like I cannot maintain my sanity without it. It took a few years of regular practice to be able to meditate for longer than 40 mintues. I don't do that often since I just don't have the time to, but I do fit in at least 10 minutes of meditation with a 30 minute Reiki session in the evening.

I have not even done my five minutes of meditating in a few weeks. I miss it. I have been so busy and behind with everything that I keep forgetting. I will make a point today to get my five little minutes in!

We had James over for a while and his bedroom is where I had everything set up to meditate. I know I could have meditated elsewhere, but the house gets very noisy with Bob watching TV and laptop surfing and so on. That back corner room is my safe haven.

James is back at his dad's house now, so I will make a renewed effort to begin meditating again.

I have been doing morning yoga on the back porch which I *love*, out in the fresh air, the sun shining, stretching and flexing and so on. So that is a gentle form of meditation.

Also at night I often use the meditation techniques I learned in class, to go into "my sanctuary" and be comfortable there. It really helps me to fall asleep.

Jilly here is a breathing exercise that is easy and works really well to clear out and get rid of tension.

Directing Your Breath.

Sit in the yoga position and breathe naturally with eyes closed till you are comfortable and settled in your seating position.

Keep breathing and become aware of your breath.

Start deep breathing, and using imagery, inhale through your nose and direct your breath into the top of your head, filling all the cavities and crevasses in your head, keep breath in that place to the count of 8, if you can.

Exhale, through your mouth, blowing your breath directly out your mouth, to the count of 8.

Again using imagery, inhale and direct your breath way down into your diaphram for the count of 8. Exhale to the count of 8.

Inhale, directing your breath in a loop down into the diaphram, into your stomach, as deep as you can and exhale on the way up, blowing as much air as you can from your body. To the count of 8.

If you can visualize colors, you can see "red looking spots or brown spots" of tension ALONG THE PATH OF YOUR BREATH, and blow them out during your exhale.

When you're using imagery, nothing is written in stone. The way the spots should look to you is however YOU see them. it does not matter how they look to you or to me, as long as you know what they are, and make sure you swoop them out with your breath. That is why you want to exhale as deeply as you can, in order to get all that out of your body.

A tip. At the end of your inhale through your nose, it helps to even pooch your tummy out so as to take in as much breath as possible. At the end of your exhale, blow as much out of your mouth as you can, squeeze your tummy in, to get as much air out as possible.

It helps to watch the spots leaving your body, drifting out into the cosmos to be neutralized and disappear.The spots could be tension, sadness, illness, headache, fatigue, and on and on.

It sounds complicated but it's not. The only difference is instead of straight breathing, your will be directing your breath to various parts of your body. Arms, knees, feet, where ever you feel that need it.

If you can not do visualization, you can still do this method. Just think about what you are going to do and then think about it while you're doing it.

That is awesome Jilly! It is so easy to get distracted from healthy activities when you are stressed.

I didn't do my yoga today because I got up and had this big to-do list of things. So I came right to my computer and started working on them. The RomanceClass update alone took probably 5 hours straight. But it's done, and I will make sure tomorrow that I do my yoga. I feel so much better when I do.

On meditation you definitely can't just jump to 20 minutes or 30 minutes. You only add *one* minute to what you're doing. And then you stay at that level until you are really happy with it. That way it's always a wonderful thing that you enjoy immensely.

I always felt incredibly soothed just sitting down to meditate and the time flew by. I haven't done it in a while now because I just got so busy. Which isn't good. So that is back on the list.

Now that the gigantic server move is FINALLY done (after four months!!) I am going to make sure I have time for things like this.

Good for you on getting that massive server move done. i hope you are good for the next five years! Blech. Or yay, i mean!

I think the ten minutes was so easy today because of watching the sunshine and breezes on the long lush prairie grasses. it was hypnotic and I was able to let go of thinking (mostly). And the yoga breathing made me a little light headed, so that was cool too.

Right now I am stuck between wanting to do my 20 minute run, doing ten minutes of yoga in the sunshine, or plowing through and getting more work done (being on a roll, with my timer and all).